In Love with France, At Home In Italy

Where did these five days go? I couldn't exactly say, since I've been in the timeless land of grandparenthood. Thanksgiving happens to coincide with our son's birthday, so we tried to bring this most American of holidays to his home in Slovenia where turkeys, except for us, are in short supply. To round up the ingredients was a challenge. Lots of flexibility and many substitutions were necessary. Just try finding "corn syrup" in the Slovene dictionary. (We ended up with something called "Dick Juice." I am not making this up!)  Other untranslatables: buttermilk, vegetable shortening, and sour cream. A few more examples of cultural difference: 1. Turkey? Shmurkey! A leftover-loving family, when in America, we usually get the biggest bird available. Slovenia does not know from Butterball, but our son was reassured by the village butcher that a turkey would materialize. And so it did, but with all due respect, it looked mo...

A hometown friend who is a respected historian is currently writing a book about a controversial local figure who went from being our town's most promising scholar to being the only US physician since the doctor who treated John Wilkes Booth to be arrested for accessory to murder after the fact. Other parts of his trajectory included being pursued by the FBI, jail, and lastly, an honored career as a humanitarian. What could my small efforts to help her with her research have to do with my belated reading of "Middlemarch"? Some years ago, we found this 1977 edition at a charity book sale. Like its heroine, it was patiently waiting for the right moment.  MIDDLETOWN, MEDDLEMARCH, MIDDLEMARCH Or should the order be reversed? I'm sticking with the first because I come from Middletown, and have only now, in my 68th year, come to "Middlemarch." Although the book was published in 1871 in a country far from mine, the universal applicab...

Now an elder-statesman at age 14, our dog Murray has set out to disprove that old saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." If you have been reading this blog for a while, you've already heard about some of his former feats of "daring-do," such as jumping through a mostly-closed car door window to wander the parking lot in search of his beloved Master. See July 6, 2013   MURRAY THE WONDER DOG (WHO WILL JUMP THROUGH HOOPS... You've also seen some of his never-fail techniques for getting that very same Master out of bed, PRONTO, even though it's not even 7AM. See Nov. 2, 2014 MURRAY THE MULTI-LINGUAL WONDER DOG WHO WANTS TO B... But now he has discovered the wonders of the snooze alarm, and it's none other than HE, HIMSELF! Here's how it works. STEP ONE Murray slinks upstairs and makes what he thinks are coyly irresistible coos of love. When they don't have the desired effect, as evidenced by our attempts...